Textile yarn winders are generally used to rewind or wind yarn, furnished in the form of bobbins from a ring spinning machine or another spinning device, to make conical or cylindrical cross-wound yarn packages. Generally, yarn from several bobbins is wound onto a single yarn package. Automatic textile yarn winders must therefore be furnished with some arrangement whereby a yarn bobbin can be unwound and then succeeded in the winding position by another bobbin or bobbins. When a new yarn bobbin replaces an empty one, the starting yarn end of the new bobbin must be located, so that it can be joined to the trailing end of the yarn on the take-up yarn package. The same problem arises if a new yarn bobbin moves into the winding position for any other reason, for example, if yarn breaks during the unwinding of a yarn bobbin and the yarn end cannot be located, in which case a new bobbin also must be advanced.
Previous known constructions in which upright individual tube support members were employed operated to find a yarn end on the yarn bobbin first when the yarn bobbin moved into the winding position. This approach is illustrated by U.S. Pat. No. 5,082,194. This arrangement concentrated a number of operations at the winding position, resulting in a complex and time consuming arrangement of mechanical parts.
Another approach, as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,111,280, required that yarn bobbins be delivered to the textile winder in a horizontal disposition. This prevented the use of upright individual tube supports for the yarn bobbins, which allow yarn bobbins to be transported without the yarn resting upon supporting surfaces. Furthermore, this method employed a complicated mechanical arrangement in feeding the yarn from the yarn bobbin to be taken up.